Analysts looking at the state of IT today are wondering about the future of facial recognition technology beyond 2020.
It hasn’t been a good year for facial recognition projects – since the backlash against Clearview AI early this year, there’s only been increasing drumbeats for controlling the technology as protesters clash with police on American streets. Then the coronavirus mask completely derailed lots of facial recognition projects that might have otherwise been effective.
Popular dissent against facial recognition surveillance even led to a rare thing in a capitalist system: a self-imposed moratorium by Amazon of its Rekognition facial recognition technology to law enforcement.
“We’re implementing a one-year moratorium on police use of Amazon’s facial recognition technology,” wrote Amazon spokespersons in rationalizing the move. “We will continue to allow organizations like Thorn, the International Center for Missing and Exploited Children, and Marinus Analytics to use Amazon Rekognition to help rescue human trafficking victims and reunite missing children with their families. We’ve advocated that governments should put in place stronger regulations to govern the ethical use of facial recognition technology, and in recent days, Congress appears ready to take on this challenge. We hope this one-year moratorium might give Congress enough time to implement appropriate rules, and we stand ready to help if requested.”
Now legislators are moving forward with bill proposals to further restrict facial recognition technologies.
Rashida Tlaib is one of several lawmakers speaking out publicly about the pitfalls of this type of surveillance. Tlaib co-authored a letter in June providing this testimony in calling for an FR ban:
“A growing body of research points to systematic inaccuracy and bias issues in biometric technologies, which pose disproportionate risks to non-white individuals. A recent report by the National Institute of Standards and Technology on facial recognition tools found that Black, Brown, and Asian individuals were up to 100 times more likely to be misidentified than white male faces.”
How will FR evolve or survive the onslaught of criticism? Stay tuned.
